Donald Trump touts new family DeFi project

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday promoted “The DeFiant Ones,” a DeFi project led by his sons Donald Jr. and Eric Trump. 

The promotion came via a post on Truth Social, the former president’s — and would-be future president’s — social media platform. 

“For too long, the average American has been squeezed by the big banks and financial elites. It’s time we take a stand—together,” Trump posted, along with a link to the project’s Telegram channel. 

The Telegram chat, created on Aug. 6, had more than 31,000 subscribers at time of publication. Organizers on Thursday posted in the channel, calling it the “only official” group for the Trump DeFi project and promising to send more updates “over the next few days.” 

The details of the project are unclear. The former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., earlier this month on X also posted a link to the Telegram channel and warned followers to beware of rumors. 

Whether or not the project could tip off securities regulators is unclear, legal experts say. 

“Based on the available information it is not clear whether the project could be deemed to be a security, which would implicate the rules governing public offerings,” Jeff Blockinger, chief operating officer and general counsel at Quadrata, said. “It seems like this is some sort of memecoin. If that is the case, someone would need to allege fraud to take action against him.” 

The Trump campaign did not respond to Blockworks’ request for comment. 

The promotion comes as the Republican presidential nominee continues to cozy up to the crypto industry. Trump last month appeared at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, where he promised to fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler “on day one” should he be elected. 

The Trump campaign started accepting donations in May, denominated in various cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ether. By the second quarter of this year, two Trump PACs had brought in a combined $3 million in crypto donations, which were converted into USDC upon receipt. 

Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss gave a combined total of 31 BTC, or roughly $2 million, to the Trump 47 Committee PAC on June 20, Federal Election Commission filings show. The next day, the twins reported that they had been refunded a portion of the donation, which exceeded the individual contribution limit of $844,600. 

Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell donated 245 ETH to the Trump campaign, equal to about $840,000.

Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the On the Margin newsletter.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.